


Reciprocation

by fancywaffles



Series: An Azure Dawn [7]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Emotions, Felix Hugo Fraldarius is Not Immune to Emotion, M/M, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Post-Blue Lions Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Sylvain Jose Gautier Has Self-Worth Issues, yes felix does in fact have them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:20:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23201584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fancywaffles/pseuds/fancywaffles
Summary: Now that their friendship has evolved into more, Felix no longer has the upper hand and has to navigate through Sylvain's now extremely proven reputation.(or, felix has emotions and sylvain is really good at sex)
Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Sylvain Jose Gautier
Series: An Azure Dawn [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654411
Comments: 35
Kudos: 466





	Reciprocation

**Author's Note:**

> fits in anywhere in the previous sylvix stuff i wrote but is shameless PWP so they're not needed for context (specifically one scene that i basically wrote Of Groves and Crabapples for and then it didn't fit so here we go)

In all the years that Felix had known Sylvain, reciprocation had _never_ crossed his mind. He’d spent most of his pubescent years trying _not_ to imagine it. When he failed and did, it had never been like this.

Felix had sex a few times when it had seemed worth the trouble. He knew what it was like. He’d had no idea what sex with Sylvain was like… no matter the rumors, and he _hated_ it. Sylvain was impossible. Every time he did something that got a reaction out of Felix, however small, Sylvain would keep doing it, until Felix was moaning like an animal and hating every second of it, because he really, _really_ didn’t hate it.

He shut his eyes as Sylvain pushed his wrists into the mattress, hips pivoting forward in a way that really made Felix want his hands back so he could cover his own mouth. And, of course, Sylvain never… shut up.

“You look, so good like this, baby,” Sylvain said, hips snapping back again in the same angle and pressing harder on Felix’s wrists until he wanted to explode.

“Shut up—” Felix gritted out. He turned his head towards the pillow, wishing he wasn’t able to look up at Sylvain so he wouldn’t feel compelled to do so and see those bronze eyes go dark and directed so completely at him he thought he might be swallowed by them.

“You are such a sweet talker,” Sylvain said and laughed as Felix elbowed him in the shoulder and then grinned smugly as he found the exact perfect angle that Felix couldn’t do anything but swear and buck against him.

So then he did it again. Felix didn’t last much longer, even less so when Sylvain let one of his wrists go and then held them _both_ down with one hand, making something in Felix’s stomach twist over, and used his free hand to wrap around him, pumping in the same rhythm as he was thrusting. 

“Fuck you,” Felix said, biting out around the guttural moan that he couldn’t have begun to try to contain.

Sylvain had the nerve to laugh at him again, as he pulled out and finished himself off, giving Felix no time to recover and assist before he flopped down next to him with a satisfied grin.

Felix was boneless and wanted to kick him, but couldn’t drive up the energy.

“I _really_ didn’t expect you to like being held down that much.”

“Shut up,” Felix said again. He glared at the ceiling, willing himself to breathe normally. “Call me baby again and I’m going to punch you in the throat.”

“Goddess, you’re a romantic,” Sylvain said, laughing. He pushed himself up so he was half hovering over Felix and kissed him. Felix melted into it, despite his best efforts. Sylvain was… unnaturally good at kissing. He seemed to know the exact right angle to tilt his chin and the perfect moment, to softly touch Felix’s jaw, while he worked his tongue in, exploring Felix’s mouth.

Another, unintentional, humiliating noise, left Felix’s throat.He almost bit Sylvain’s tongue off, when he felt him laugh against his mouth, but Sylvain pulled back and grinned smugly at him.

“You’re… an ass,” Felix said.

“Mm,” Sylvain said, nonplussed. He wrapped a heavy big arm around Felix and drew him in, nuzzling into his neck and kissing softly at his ear. “You’re perfect.”

Felix wanted to sink through the bed into the floor. “Shut _up_ ,” he said, this time pained.

“Felix,” Sylvain murmured and moved his lips over the bruised skin settling on Felix’s neck from earlier when he’d figured out what biting there did to him. “Why are you so bad at taking compliments?”

Because I can’t say anything back _._ Felix didn’t say. “I don’t want to hear the same shit you use on … everyone else.”

“Excuse me,” Sylvain said, lifting up a little so he could look at Felix. “I’m not recycling old tactics. You are a very unique and challenging hill that I am happy to climb.”

Felix glared at him, feeling a little more secure now that he was irritated. “You used to call girls ‘baby’ because you couldn’t remember their names.”

Sylvain winced and then recovered and kissed Felix’s jaw lightly, followed by an even lighter kiss to his nose. “I know _your_ name.”

It was way too early to go again and Felix was pretty sure they were going to die if they tried, but Sylvain drew his hand down Felix’s flank until it was resting on his hip and he drew little circles there with his fingers, tracing his way over the curve of the bone to the plane of Felix’s stomach and back again. And despite knowing that this was probably a move too, Felix felt himself melt into it anyway.

Sylvain was such an asshole.

* * *

Felix tried to get work done and some sense of normality back into his schedule, but Sylvain was insatiable and had discovered too easily ways to make Felix agree to anything. Even ridiculous things like abandoning a strategy meeting so that Sylvain could bully him up onto a window ledge behind a curtain, where anyone could have seen them if they tried.

And they could definitely hear them even if they didn’t.

“Mm, you like that?” Sylvain asked, pull tightly on Felix’s hair. Felix absolutely did not whimper at the tension at the base of his skull paired with the lazy way Sylvain was rolling his hip against his own, grinding down against him.

“Shut up,” Felix whispered angrily. “Someone’s going to hear us.”

“Someone’s gonna hear _you_ ,” Sylvain said, and then mouthed at the same spot on Felix’s neck that he’d been trying to hide with his collar all day, scraping his teeth against it, until a strangled noise left Felix’s throat as if it had generated directly from that spot.

Felix tried covering his mouth with his fist, but Sylvain took his hand away and held it down at his side, while he worked a fresh mark just below the old one on Felix’s neck. “I hate you,” Felix ground out, but it morphed into another groan, when Sylvain palmed the front of his trousers and started tugging on his pants.

“Careful,” Sylvain murmured, using one hand to pull Felix’s leg up higher from where it was resting by his waist and the other to drag his pants down around his thighs. “You move too much and someone’s going to see the King’s Right Hand’s ass out the window.”

“It’s stained glass,” Felix said, because coherent thought had left him as Sylvain wrapped his hand around the length of him and squeezed slightly.

“Not sound proof though,” Sylvain said, seemingly taking that as a challenge as he worked his hand in a motion that made Felix’s hip stutter forward. If Sylvain’s other hand hadn’t been holding him steady he would have fallen off the windowsill. This was such a stupid place to do this, he couldn’t believe he’d let Sylvain drag him here. Decades of friendship only occasionally being talked into doing something incredibly stupid ruined, because now Sylvain had the upper hand.

A hand which moved again, languidly stroking, while also making the slightest turn. Felix shoved his face into Sylvain’s shoulder to muffle any further noises. Sylvain let him and thankfully didn’t start talking again, but instead nipped Felix’s earlobe and then worked his way back down his neck.

Felix was able to muffle his groans into Sylvain’s shoulder, hearing mostly the slap of movement between them and the heavy breathing, which wasn’t subtle either if anyone walked by. Finally, he came with a grunt, gripping Sylvain’s back for leverage as he jerked forward.

Sylvain looked… irritatingly proud of himself and Felix was pretty sure he looked as wrecked as he felt. Felix shoved Sylvain’s hand off him that was holding him up and dropped his feet to the floor, ignoring the fact that they felt gelatinous. He looked down at the mess and dragged his pants back up, glad at least they were darkly colored to give him some minor camouflage of not having done what they had been doing when he left here.

“I feel disgusting,” he said.

Sylvain waggled his eyebrows at him. “Wanna take a bath?”

Felix sighed. He was not going to get normal back.

* * *

It was the third day and… seventh time, that Felix was able to unwind himself from Sylvain’s expert manipulations. He shoved Sylvain hard onto his back, interrupting the path Sylvain was beginning to take down his chest and likely lower. Sylvain raised an eyebrow at him and Felix skipped Sylvain’s tactical approach and went for a more direct one, sliding down his body, going straight for the target. He realized he hadn’t actually gotten a good look at Sylvain in the last three days until he was hard and throbbing in front of his face. Felix ignored the sudden nerves and mouthed down, causing Sylvain’s hips to jerk forward and him to take in even more, nearly choking. Sylvain let out a strangled noise at that and Felix started to take the lead and swallow down, but Sylvain’s fingers threaded in his hair and instead of encouraging him, pulled him back so that he let go.

Felix stared up at him, mouth a little sore, and very confused.

Sylvain, of all things, looked uncomfortable. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Do… you not want me to do that?” Felix asked. He was suddenly worried that there was a hidden ‘but’ in all the previous declarations and activities that he didn’t notice because he was too busy being fucked out of his brain.

“No, I mean, _yeah_ , but,” Sylvain gave him a lopsided smile and the fingers still in Felix’s hair, started stroking him instead of pulling, “I like making you happy.”

Felix pushed himself up to sitting. It had been a very intense few days. Pretty much every thing he’d never himself think about had happened in the span of 72 hours, so he hadn’t really noticed, but now that he was thinking about it… it dawned on him.

He stared at Sylvain. “You don’t have to give without getting anything back.”

“I’m getting plenty back,” Sylvain said, not looking like he was understanding. Of course he wouldn’t. It was like their entire life, Sylvain could put himself out there for someone else, but accepting help that wasn’t forced on him was always too much hassle… better to pretend everything was lazy, happy, and easy.

“Fucking hell, Sylvain, is _this_ why you have such a good reputation?”

Sylvain made a face. “That is not a phrase I hear about myself often.”

“For sex,” Felix clarified. “You’re good in bed.”

“Thank you,” Sylvain said, chipper, avoiding the point, either intentionally or not.

“You have a reputation for being good in bed,” Felix said, battling his frustration and urge to smother Sylvain with the pillow.

“I feel as if I’ve proven that reputation to be true,” Sylvain said. He was eyeing Felix suspiciously now, and stretched his arms up and over his head, to fold and lean back on them.

“Is it true because you like making them _happy_ without reciprocation?”

Sylvain stared at him, blinking slower than normal. “… that’s not what I was doing.” He frowned and stared up at the ceiling. “Was it?”

Felix almost put his head down, but that would’ve gotten them right back to where they were considering his position. He moved up the bed slightly and pulled Sylvain’s chin down so he was looking at him. “You have to stop.” He brushed his thumb against the prickly evening stubble that wasn’t thick enough to be visible. “I don’t like feeling like…” Fuck. He hated talking. Felix _especially_ hated talking about this, but he forced himself to. “I don’t like thinking our friendship is one-sided. I don’t… sometimes I didn’t even get why you stayed friends with me at all.” No amount of yelling, pushing back, or snapping had ever seemed to deter him. “I don’t want that to be this too.”

“Felix,” Sylvain said, breathy and full of feeling. He shifted and moved his hands to cup Felix’s face and pull him down into a kiss. Before their lips could do more than barely brush, Sylvain murmured, “I can’t even believe you put up with me.”

Felix pulled away from him and sat straight up again.

“What?” Sylvain said, elbowing himself up to a half seated position. “ _You’ve_ said that.”

“You _know_ that’s different,” Felix said.

Sylvain sighed and let his head fall back on the pillow. He closed his eyes. “We both know I don’t deserve you tolerating my shit most of the time. I don’t see why you’re bothered by vocalizing it.”

It was… such a uniquely Sylvain related feeling to want to strangle and kiss him at the same time. Felix threw his leg over Sylvain’s side, straddling him and leaned over him, so he was level with Sylvain when he opened his eyes to stare up at him, with complete and utter confusion. “You’ve always had me, you idiot. Even when you weren’t trying.”

“That’s not the same thing,” Sylvain said.

He still wasn’t getting it and Felix wasn’t good at talking about this. He wasn’t good at talking about anything related to this without feeling like his skin was going to crawl off of him.“Has it occurred to you that maybe I _want_ to suck you off.”

Sylvain was silent, for once.

“Not everything is a transaction,” Felix said. “I’m… _fuck_ , Sylvain I hate talking about this, but you —” He hit Sylvain in the shoulder with a clenched fist. “I’m not going anywhere, so stop… stop thinking you have to convince me to stay.”

Sylvain let out a very long breath. “I didn’t think that’s what I was doing.”

“Its not,” Felix said, still having trouble getting the miasma of feelings to translate into words, “as long as you let me—I know… I’m not as good as you at…”

“Emotions?” Sylvain suggested. “Sex? Not yelling at Dimitri?”

“Shut up,” Felix said, automatically and Sylvain smiled in response. He swallowed the uncomfortable feeling in the back of his throat and licked his lips. “So… what do you like?”

“What?”

It had been three days of Sylvain figuring Felix out and finding what he liked and Felix was going to fucking figure out how to reciprocate and get it through Sylvain’s thick skull what _this_ was even if it killed both of them. So Felix suffered through his irritation and embarrassment. “What do _you_ like?”

“Oh, _oh_ ,” Sylvain said grinning as it finally dawned on him. “I like that keening noise you made when I fucked you yesterday.”

Felix could feel the burning flush cover his face up to the tips of his ears. “That… what else? About you,” he added, “not about me.”

“You’ve got really nice hands,” Sylvain said, missing the point again. “Like you wouldn’t think they’d be that elegant with all the swordswork you do.”

“ _Not_ about me.”

“That wasn’t about you,” Sylvain said. “That was about your hands, specifically your fingers.”

Felix wasn’t able to feel any more uncomfortable than he already did, but it was getting close. “Okay, what…” He knew Sylvain liked talking and getting Felix to make any kind of sound, especially if it was humiliating. He knew that much at least, so he pushed through. “… do you want me to do with them?”

“Hmmm.” Sylvain seemed to be mulling it over or thrilling at making Felix squirm. He pushed himself up to sitting, taking Felix with him, and depositing him onto his lap. He took Felix’s hand and brought it down to wrap around. “Slow,” he said. “Not… the greedy Ingrid eating move you did earlier with your mouth.”

“This will go a lot easier if you stop mentioning our friends,” Felix muttered. He shifted from his embarrassment to focus on the way Sylvain hardened in his hand and the, ironically, more subtle reactions, like Sylvain taking a quiet sharp breath when Felix moved a certain way.

“That’s fine,” Sylvain said, rolling his head back and leisurely thrusting into Felix’s hand. “Put the other one on my balls,” he said.

Felix listened and cupped Sylvain in his other hand, finally getting to actually feel him, after over two days of being felt. He listened to the hitch in Sylvain’s breath grow as he spread his thumb over the skin connecting.

“Shit, yeah,” Sylvain said. “I mean this is good, but also the way you said you wanted to suck me off was pretty much the best thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Felix couldn’t believe looking at Sylvain’s dick was less embarrassing than looking at his face at the moment, but he put all his focus there, working his hands slow and easy and trying to pick up on any subtle cues that meant something was working. He wasn’t as good at Sylvain at it, noticing how people felt that wasn’t in relation to combat wasn’t Felix’s strong suit, but after a minute or so he felt more confident that Sylvain was actually enjoying himself.

“Do you want me to … try again?” Felix asked, when he looked up Sylvain was looking at him, eyes blown, and wide like they had been yesterday when he’d been over and in him.

“Yeah, that’d, yeah,” Sylvain said, proving Felix wasn’t the only one that wasn’t articulate.He leaned back on his elbows and spread his legs wide enough so Felix could get between them. Felix went slower this time, trying to duplicate what he’d done with his fingers. He softly kissed the underside, pleased at the groan Sylvain made, complete with affirmatives and his name (and another fucking ‘baby’ but Felix was ignoring that). Then he drew his tongue up the entire length and very carefully put his mouth over the tip of it.

Sylvain breathed out and twisted his hands into the sheets. “Good, that’s… yeah.”

Felix took that encouragement and kept going at the same speed, until his mouth was all the way around Sylvain’s length, with his hand wrapped around the root. He thought about all the times he’d wanted to do this and hadn’t let himself think about it, and moved almost all the way back off and then swallowed down more at the same speed Sylvain had directed him earlier.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Sylvain swore, his hips jerked again and he tried to keep them still, but Felix felt like that was as of good of an indication as any and brought his free hand around to grip Sylvain’s ass as he sucked down for better control. “Felix, _fuck_ , baby, shit—yeah, okay—”

Felix kept going, relaxed his throat, kept drawing out more from Sylvain, feeling himself hard against the sheets of the bed and trying to resist grinding into it as he sucked down, afraid he’d lose his concentration.

“Fuck, you are perfect,” Sylvain said, and when Felix glanced up he was looking down at him, with an expression that so full of feeling and sincerity it made Felix immediately look away. “You ignoring it doesn’t make it not true—” Sylvain said, his breath hitching on every syllable.“ _Felix_ ,” he said, “I’m—you should—”

Felix felt Sylvain’s hand on his head tugging to let him know, but it wasn’t tugging him off, so Felix ignored him and when Sylvain realized the implication of that he swore and came hard, filling Felix’s mouth so fast he choked.

“I warned you,” Sylvain said mildly apologetic, as he fell back, limp on the bed. It was satisfying, he looked as limbless as Felix had felt yesterday… and the day before that. Sylvain waved a hand. “In favor of not giving too much, I am not going to get up and help you, since I can no longer move.”

Felix coughed and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Good,” he said.

Sylvain lifted his head enough to get a look at him. “Fuck, you look good. Come here,” he said, eyes darkening again.

Felix listened, mostly because he was painfully hard and incredibly satisfied that he’d finally gotten Sylvain to look wrecked rather than the other way around. Once he was close enough, Sylvain put a hand to his face and brushed his thumb over his cheek. “Let me watch you,” he said and grinned as Felix felt himself flush again. “You asked what I liked.”

“Fine,” Felix said, irritated Sylvain had gotten the upper hand again this quickly, and laid down next to him. He gripped himself and closed his eyes, but could feel Sylvain staring at him, watching every moment, so it didn’t help much.

“How’d you do it…” Sylvain said, “when you were thinking about me?”

“Fuck you,” Felix said, breathlessly.

Sylvain chuckled and brushed some hair off Felix’s face. “I mean if that’s what you pictured we can absolutely do that.”

“Shut up,” Felix said, huffing out at breath and turning so that he was on his side, facing Sylvain. When he opened his eyes, Sylvain was leaning on one elbow, lazily sprawled out watching him with heavy eyes. Felix swallowed. “Fine.”

He looked at Sylvain, without meeting his eyes, and remembered what it was like to catch glimpses of him when he was trying not to. The way Sylvain looked after sweating through a hot day pulling weeds. The shift in his jaw and glint in his eyes when he was flirting with someone he was actually interested in and not just bored. The way he sat in class, one leg over the bench and one leg bent to the side. Felix thought about the first sight of him, when they’d all found each other again at the monastery. He thought about being in his room later, angry, and frustrated and fisting himself hard and fast, thinking about Sylvain’s new armor, and hair, and how much better he was at holding a lance and — Felix finished silently with a soft grunt.

When he let himself look up at Sylvain again, the heavy eyes were soft. Sylvain crossed the short distance and kissed him and thankfully didn’t say anything else.

* * *

When Felix woke up the next morning, Sylvain was staring down at him, like he’d been watching him sleep. He felt overwhelmed thinking about that, but before he could contend with the idea, Sylvain ruined it.

“Did everyone _really_ think I was great at sex?”

Felix buried his head back into the pillow.

“Felix, c’mon, I will never have sex with anyone else again, you need to give this to me.”

That statement was also overwhelming, but the delivery made Felix want to smother him with the pillow he was pressing his face into.

Sylvain kissed his shoulder. “Please, stroke my ego like you stroked your—”

Felix didn’t let him finish and did pick the pillow up and twisted around, smashing it in Sylvain’s stupid face. He could hear Sylvain laughing even through the feathers and fabric.

Sylvain pushed the pillow aside and leaned over Felix, his stupid grin dancing a trail up his entire face until his eyes practically shined with it. Why did he have to look so fucking good in the morning?

“Yes,” Felix said. “Everyone thought you were good at sex.”

“Even Janette?” Sylvain asked.

“I didn’t take a fucking survey,” Felix said.

Sylvain had at least enough self-preservation to look abashed and picked Felix’s hand up to kiss tenderly at the inside of his wrist. “How’d you find out then?”

“Girls talking, loudly, usually in places where everyone could hear them like the library.” He smoothed out a flyaway piece of hair on the side of Sylvain’s face. “They also talked about how much of a dick you were.”

“Dick who could give a dicking,” Sylvain said and immediately looked like he regretted it as he looked at Felix’s face. “Sorry, hard to resist. You know… like my dick.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Felix promised and pushed up to try and throw Sylvain off the bed or at least off of him. He succeeded, but the bastard took Felix with him, rolling him on top of him as he landed on his back on the other side of the bed.

Sylvain looked incredibly smug, staring at up at him. “You’re not a morning person, are you?”

“Do you think your stupid jokes are going to get a better reaction in the afternoon?” Felix asked, flicking Sylvain’s ear.

“Ow,” Sylvain said, but he laughed. “It’s … novel, okay? I mean, I know I was good at getting girls, but I thought it was the getting part. It's nice to know I left an impact other than a trail of ladies pretending to be broken hearted.”

Felix rested his cheek on Sylvain’s chest. “How do you know they were pretending?”

Sylvain rolled his eyes and then looked at Felix. “Because none of them actually knew me. I can’t even remember any of them not bouncing back within the next few months to some other noble with a crest.”

Felix could feel Sylvain’s heartbeat thudding steadily against the spot where he’d laid his face. “I didn’t bounce back, you don’t know they all did.”

Sylvain gave him a lopsided smile and carded his fingers through Felix’s hair. “Must’ve been pretty tough hearing about my sexual prowess without trying it out.”

“I survived,” Felix said, dryly, but he also reflexively leaned into Sylvain’s hand. Sylvain took that as a lead and brought his other hand up to move through Felix’s hair, gently stroking through it, in a movement that felt like he was being pet and having his hair combed all at once.

“I love it when you’re soft like this,” Sylvain said, then added when Felix met his eyes, “also appreciate when you’re prickly.”

“That’s a broad judgement for three days,” Felix murmured.

Sylvain was still giving him that lopsided smile. “No, that was true even before you experienced my sex god powers, baby.”

“Sylvain,” Felix said, with an irritated grunt. “Seriously, stop calling me that.”

“It’s instinctual. I have to call you something,” Sylvain said. “Felix isn’t an affectionate pet name, no matter how much I like saying it.”

He attempted to lead his point, by continuing to stroke through Felix’s hair, which was… mildly effective as a strategy. “What about darling?”

“No.”

“Fe-Fe?”

“Fuck no.”

“Doll face?”

Felix lifted his head to glare at him. “Are you even trying to be serious?”

Sylvain made an eerily serious face and lowered his voice a tone. “Belov _ed_?”

“That’s…” Felix didn’t know if he wanted to laugh or punch him. “A freakishly good Dimitri impression, but if you’re serious, no.”

Sylvain shifted his jaw and made the face he used to, not during assignments, but when he was trying to think of excuses to get out of them. He nodded to himself and then met Felix with soft, fond eyes. “My heart?”

Felix cringed. “Ugh.”

Sylvain must’ve actually thought that one was good, because he frowned and offered, “Lord Pissy von Pisserson?”

Felix shrugged one shoulder. “That one’s fine.”

Sylvain grunted with frustration. “Felix, you’re _so_ … what about Snookums?”

“I hate you.”

“Sweetheart?” Sylvain said, a little desperate. “You have to give me sweetheart.”

Felix raised an eyebrow. “Yes, that describes me perfectly.”

“Fair point. Honey?”

Felix groaned, realizing this was not a joke, and Sylvain actually wanted to call him a stupid pet name. He hid his face in Sylvain’s chest. “Fine, if you absolutely have to—ugh—baby… but _sparingly_ and _never_ in public.” He could deal with it when he was dealing with every other humiliating thing Sylvain did in bed, but not out in the world where he was supposed to pretend that Sylvain couldn’t get him to do pretty much whatever he wanted if he made the right move.

He had a lot of right moves.

Felix could _hear_ the grin in Sylvain’s voice. “I love a good compromise, Lord Pissy von Pisserson.”

Felix laughed and rolled off Sylvain and back on the bed.

“I’m not giving you a pet name,” Felix warned him, lips still pulling up at the sides.

Sylvain snorted. “You already have like at least four.” At Felix’s confused look, Sylvain said, “Asshole. Moron. Idiot. Fool.”

“Those aren’t pet names.”

Sylvain looked at Felix, like he was trying to pull on one him. “Aren’t they?”

“No,” Felix said. “They’re descriptions when you’re being an asshole, moron, idiot, or fool.”

Sylvain scoffed. “If that were true, I’d have to think every time you said, ‘I hate you’ you meant it and didn’t mean ‘I love you.’”

Felix immediately flushed, he knew because even before his face started to feel hot, Sylvain was grinning that stupid smug grin at him. Feeling slightly more confident after last night and tired of Sylvain leveraging his ‘prowess’ against him, Felix threw himself into the middle of the fight and said, “I do love you.”

Surprised, Sylvain’s entire face and body went soft, as predicted, he hadn’t expected it. “Felix,” he said and put his hand on Felix’s face pulling him closer as he leaned in to brush his lips against the corner of his mouth. “If I call you perfect again are you going to hit me?” Sylvain asked, punctuating every other word with another soft kiss to different angles of Felix’s mouth.

“I don’t want to talk,” Felix said.

Sylvain, still soft and gentle, didn’t press it and merely kept kissing him, gentle and delicate like he might break in his hands. This wasn’t something Felix had pictured either, but he definitely didn’t hate it. He angled against Sylvain so they were both laying on their sides, pressed together.

Sylvain kissed him a little more deeply, no words, but a contented noise as he deepened the kiss even more and slid his hand from Felix’s face to his back, gliding over the skin, until he hit a scar and then taking his time to trace the lines of it.

Felix took his lead and brought his own hand, starting at the mostly faded mark on Sylvain’s arm, where a javelin had torn through his armor. Then he felt Sylvain’s touch move down, touching the spot of upraised skin where a _miasma_ had almost taken Felix down. Something caught in Sylvain’s throat and his breath stalled for a second, before he pulled Felix in closer.

It had been years since the war, since the promise to stick around and survive or die together in the midst of the violence, but Sylvain tended to hold onto things, relive them instead of moving on. Felix barely remembered much of that time beyond pain and panic, but he knew what it felt like to think that next hit would end the life of someone he knew better than his sword. There’d been too many close calls, but they were here now and…

“I love you,” Felix said again, into Sylvain’s skin. “I love you,” he said another time, because he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get the courage up to do it again later. Now, in this quiet moment that was only them, he felt like he could.

“Felix,” Sylvain said in a way that made it clear he _could_ say it like a pet name. He nosed Felix’s ear and breathed in his hair. “You said you didn’t want to talk,” he murmured low and gentle, in a clear attempt not to break the spell of this moment they were in.

Felix responded by kiss Sylvain’s jaw lightly, once. “I’m compromising.”

He expected a retort, but Sylvain only pulled back a little so he could look at Felix. Sylvain looked less confident, not cocky, even unsure. “Why?”

Felix knew he wasn’t asking about compromise. Sylvain was such an idiot. “Not counting the sexual prowess,” Felix said and saw a twitch of smugness coming back to Sylvain’s vulnerable and open expression, “or the fact that—You know what you look like.”

“Yeah, those are a given.”

Felix couldn’t put everything into words and some of the words even now he couldn’t bring himself to say, but he tried. “You’re what I can’t.”

Sylvain looked confused and Felix took a shaky breath and tried again, “You open yourself up instead of shutting down. You don’t use anger like a shield and no matter how ridiculous you get or how angry I got, you’d always have my back when it mattered. You’re irresponsible with your own safety and throw yourself into supporting me even if it gets you hurt. And you’re like that with _everyone_.”

In what was a complete first, Sylvain dipped his head, hiding his eyes from Felix. “Damn,” he said, sounding a little choked.

Felix started to feel his discomfort come back and knew the moment of emotional vulnerability was passing. “Yeah, so that’s why I love you, idiot.”

Sylvain chuckled. “Told you it was a term of endearment.” Felix smacked his shoulder with barely any bite to it. Sylvain looked up at him and eyes were visibly wet. “You know I can _not_ follow that, right?”

“I didn’t do it so you’d give me something back,” Felix said.

Sylvain smiled at him. “Sweetheart does describe you pretty accurately.”

“Shut up,” Felix said.

“Ah,” Sylvain laughed and dragged Felix towards him so he was shoved into a prone embrace. “That’s my Lord Pissy von Pisserson.”

Felix closed his eyes, groaned and deeply regretted the last ten minutes. “I hate you.”

“No,” Sylvain said, smug as he kissed the top of Felix’s head. “No, you don’t.”

**Author's Note:**

> @waffle_fancy on twitter


End file.
